Images sent out by North Korea's tightly controlled propaganda media show how Kim Jong-Un was received by Chinese dignitaries on a train platform in Beijing on Tuesday, ahead of the large military parade that took place on Wednesday.
Directly behind Kim stands a young woman, who, like the North Korean dictator, is completely dressed in black. It is his daughter Kim Ju-Ae, 12 or 13 years old, who is on her first official foreign visit.
This is not a simple trip with the family, but in all essentials a debut for a successor, says Lim Eul-Chul, professor at Kyungnam University in South Korea, to AFP.
Bowing adults
Kim Ju-Ae has been given increasingly more space in the controlled spotlight, alongside her father.
It was the American basketball star Dennis Rodman who revealed to the world that Kim Jong-Un had a daughter, when he had visited North Korea in 2013 and said he had met a little girl.
The first time she was shown by the propaganda media was in November 2022, when she was seen inspecting ballistic rockets together with Kim Jong-Un. Since then, she has regularly been allowed to accompany her father in various contexts, not infrequently in matching clothes, and it has been demonstrated how adult dignitaries bow deeply in the girl's presence.
It is not known exactly when Ju-Ae was born, but she is estimated to be 12 or 13 years old. In the propaganda, she has not yet been mentioned by name, but is referred to in reverent terms that are otherwise only used when it comes to the dictator himself.
Do like grandfather
Getting to follow on a state visit to North Korea's main benefactor China is seen as another important step to consolidate the succession order.
Kim Ju-Ae's grandfather Kim Jong-Il appeared as a heir to power when he made a similar visit to Beijing in 1983 - when he was received by the power figure Xi Zhongxun, father of China's current president Xi Jinping.
The dictator's daughter also participated in an event at the Russian embassy recently, says Yang Moo-Jin, former chairman of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
But when she now accompanies Kim on a "brother country's" victory day celebration, she is in practice making her formal debut abroad, he says.
North Korea is the world's most closed country, a dictatorship ruled by Kim Jong-Un, son of the totalitarian leader Kim Jong-Il and grandson of the "father of the nation" Kim Il-Sung. The society is militarized and the people are strictly monitored.
The official ideology of juche in North Korea praises "national independence" and "self-reliance". In practice, it has meant isolationism, oppression and famine for the approximately 25 million inhabitants.
Arbitrary arrests of regime critics, non-existent legal certainty, as well as torture and abuse of prisoners in the country's prisons and prison camps are widespread.
North Korea is at the same time a nuclear power that spends large resources on its defense. According to UN resolutions, the country is not allowed to launch ballistic rockets or conduct nuclear tests. Repeated breaches of this have led to the country being subject to extensive sanctions.
Sources: Landguiden/UI, NE and others
